When we visited Benamahoma, well first it took us a few hours to learn to pronounce the town’s name. Beh-Na-Ma-OH-Ma. But in all seriousness, it was only meant to be a stop-off point on our way to Grazalema to speak with the mayoress about her town’s history of repression and about the fosa de las mujeres or “mass grave of the women” that was linked to Grazalema. Ana María and her companions had spoken to us about that site a little that Monday and this was Friday and we were supposed to learn more.

I need to start with a little background information. Our first interview was with a man named José, whom we learned about from his daughter, who is a professor working with the students on the W&M Summer Abroad Cádiz program. He came and spoke with us about his family’s story. Being the incredibly kind person he is, his help did not stop with allowing us to film and photograph him. He offered to pick us up from the bus station in his town to drive us to a little town nearby that would be difficult to get to by public transportation: Jimena de la Frontera. It was there that we were to meet an interviewee and guide on Wednesday the 12th.

Monday the 10th was a traveling day because had an interview in Ubrique with some women who were grandchildren of victims of the Franco period. When we spoke with one of them, Ana María, she agreed that we should try to find the objects from the dig she worked on about eight years ago. The last they were seen was in 2007 at the Museo Histórico Municipal de Villamartín (The Municipal Museum of History in the town of Villamartín).